


A Charming Wreath

by zephrene



Series: Moonshine 'Verse [5]
Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-30
Updated: 2009-11-30
Packaged: 2017-10-04 01:05:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephrene/pseuds/zephrene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Professor Malfoy discovers a prank left on his office door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Charming Wreath

One week before the students left for winter hols, a magical wreath appeared on Draco's office door. He discovered it after dinner as he walked down the corridor with Luna and Headmaster Allan. It was beautiful, with a cheery red ribbon and fairy lights among the pine cones and greenery, but it was also charmed to sing lewd Christmas carols whenever there was movement within range.

Draco's first reaction was, predictably, anger, especially when he deciphered the lyrics about what he and Luna got up to in their quarters at night. And of course it was that much worse because the Headmaster was there to see it.

Luna just held tight to his arm and laughed, and the anger left him.

"Oh, Draco," she said as she caught her breath. "You should see your face! Look at me," she gestured to her increasingly ungainly pregnancy, accentuated rather than concealed by the festive robes she wore. "I'm sure the whole castle knows we've had sex at least once."

The usually sober Headmaster cracked a smile at that.

"Still, it's disrespectful," Draco muttered. Merlin, all those years teaching university courses and he had forgotten how titillating teenagers found sex and romance.

He reached out to remove the wretched prank from his door, and Luna cried, "Don't!" in the sharp and commanding voice she used on her interns in the field. Draco froze mid-movement.

"There are other charms at work," she explained to the Headmaster as Draco took a step back. Luna drew her wand from her sleeve and faced the wreath directly. "Do you mind?" she asked, looking at the Headmaster.

"No, no, please go ahead. I'd love to see you work." The older man gestured toward the door with curiosity plain on his face.

Draco frowned. "Are you sure you should -"

Luna nodded with perfect confidence. "It will be fine. I'll just take a look." With that she pointed her wand at the wreath and whispered a string of syllables that Draco knew were Egyptian. A sphere of translucent colors appeared between Luna and the door, its surface covered in moving lines of magical information. Arithmantic equations writhed around charm diagrams and alchemical symbols.

Draco had seen Luna do this many times. It was a very specialized set of interwoven spells with a single incantation, and as far as he knew there were only three people in the world who could cast it. That would change as curricula were updated across Europe, but magical schools were notoriously backward about revisions to the standard groups of spells for each year.

Hermione described watching the process with a Muggle term, laser light show, and once Draco had actually been dragged, with a gaggle of Granger and Weasley children, to a planetarium to watch one, he agreed. The difference was that the lines of light Luna manipulated were active spells and magical energies.

"Sticking charms for the door and the fairy lights, and a shock jinx if you try to take it down," Luna murmured, walking around the sphere, occasionally poking bits of it to clear tangles or reveal layers. "I'd say this is the work of some very precocious fourth-years, or perhaps OWL students who didn't pay enough attention. Certainly by sixth year they would know better than to layer these three charms together. That's a nasty interference effect there."

Headmaster Allan followed Luna's explanation with interest, but Draco concentrated on the corridor around them. He recognized the subtle signs of students in hiding - a tiny inhalation when Luna had cast her spell; the rustling of fabric just out of his line of sight; sibilant whispers carrying down the hallway. He silently cast a few jinxes of his own at either end of the hallway, trapping the culprits and their audience until he could identify them.

"If I had worked with any of these students, I could tell you who they are, but I don't recognize any of the wand signatures. Headmaster, I can't take care of this at the moment, would you oblige me by countering these two charms?" Luna pointed with her wand at two braided strands of script. "That should allow Draco to take it down and dispose of it."

Headmaster Allan flicked his wand twice, and the sphere of light vanished as the wreath fell off the door. Pine cones went flying, then stopped short and dropped to the floor as they hit Luna's quickly-raised shield.

Luna grinned down at the remains of the wreath as she replaced her wand in her sleeve. "Well, that was refreshing."

Draco smiled at her, and he knew that he had not managed it very well when she pressed herself into his side and took his hand. He hated to see her reminded of all that she had lost, hated that she had to ask the Headmaster to perform such simple spells in her stead. It was not fair, but then there had been nothing in the war that was fair to anyone. Their colleagues here did not inquire, presuming that it was Luna's pregnancy - a precious and dangerous condition for her - that restricted her magic use. He did not wish to draw attention by correcting their assumptions yet.

"Draco."

He blinked and looked down at his wife.

"I think you should take down the traps in the hallway now," she said, tilting her head to look over his shoulder.

Draco turned and found four guilty-looking students - two Slytherins and two Hufflepuffs - trying to pull their feet free from the glue-covered floor.

Even Headmaster Allan laughed at that.


End file.
